The more things change, the more they stay the same.
In the final event of the 2025 NDA regular season, 12 teams descended upon metro Detroit looking to make one final statement before the National Championship next month. While many teams were looking to improve upon or solidify their position, one team stood out yet again and put an exclamation point on an already great season: East Lansing Final Justice.
Final Justice has once again proven why they are the front runner to take home the championship this October. Their performance in Detroit started off a bit rocky with a tie against a Gamecocks squad who seems to have finally got it together after a season of nothing but struggles. FJ went undefeated throughout the rest of pool play, largely unchallenged, until they reached the semi-final match against the hometown squad, Omertà.
The FJ/Omertà matchup was a bloodbath that ended with a comically short Overtime match in East Lansing’s favor.
Before the recap of the final match up, it’s worth noting other standout performances. Though Groundhogs finished pool play in the winless category, their squad is certainly improving and the dedication they show proves that the team from ATL will be a problem in the coming years. Resistance had a bit of a rough showing after coming away with some hardware in Hamilton only a few weeks before. The team from Akron seemed a little slow on the court, though knowing their leadership it could be a tactic to rest up and evaluate their opponents before the big show in a couple weekends. Despite the rocky start and missing the championship bracket, Resistance was able to come out on top of the consolation bracket after defeating the Royals.
As previously mentioned, the Gamecocks started the day off with a big tie against FJ then didn’t lose another match until hitting the Kraken roadblock in the quarter finals, more on that game later. The Flock from Columbus is certainly looking to ride this wave into Nationals as they try to claw their way into the Top 8. Frostbite is a team that seemingly wins every game they’re expected to and loses every game they’re expected to. The definition of a play-by-the-rankings team. This proved prophetic as they came out of pool play as the 3 seed and lost to higher ranked Omerta. Every team is due one big surprise each year, could theirs happen in Fort Wayne?
Resistance, Leviathans and Groundhogs rounded out the rest of the pool. For Leviathans and Resistance it was a step in the wrong direction as they had each come into this event with multiple championship bracket appearances on the season. Both will look to right the ship on October 4th in Fort Wayne.
We will get to the champions soon enough but in a season full of surprises the final 4 was a reminder that the old guards of dodgeball aren’t done just yet.
We saw Grand Rapids Dynasty, with their new addition Will Dalton, go undefeated on their way to the top seed and a first round bye. They began their day breaking in their new member with a hard fought win over longtime rival Grand Rapids Kraken 3-1 and followed that up with a convincing 3-0 over Detroit Omerta. Kraken would have to shake the early loss off as they would go right from Dynasty to Queen City Royals. Kraken and Royals had yet to play each other in 2025 and Kraken has been looking up at them in the standings since day one. Kraken eventually got the best of the Royals 3-0 to set themselves up for another championship bracket appearance. Royals were able to rebound and shutout the Streetsboro Spiders 5-0 before dropping their next match to Dynasty 3-1. In the 2nd to last queue of games in Pool A we saw arguably the best and most heated match of the day between Omerta and the Royals. This one looked every bit of a heavyweight fight and was a back and forth affair. In the end, Omerta was able to finish off the decisive 5th point with under a minute remaining to secure a 3-2 victory and eliminate the Royals from Championship Bracket contention. In the final match of pool play, Omerta faced off against Kraken in a game that would determine the 2 seed. The home team Omerta jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the West Michigan team and held off a furious rally to claim a 3-2 victory and the 2 seed from Pool B.
It should also be noted that while the Spiders did not make the Championship Bracket in Detroit, their past performances have assured them a spot in the top 12 at the 2025 National Championship in Fort Wayne.
Moving onto the bracket, we had some familiar faces pitted against each other as Kraken took on the Gamecocks and Omerta faced off against Frostbite.
Kraken was able to jump out to an early lead over the Gamecocks with a solid team effort despite a strong individual performance from semi-retired Gamecock Brett Hadwin who seemed to turn back the clock in his comeback tournament. In the end, Kraken eliminated the Gamecocks by a final of 6-2 setting up a rematch with rival Dynasty.
The Kraken- Dynasty matchup turned out to be an instant classic that would culminate in overtime. Kraken did something they have not been able to do in 3 previous tries this year which was to take the initial lead on Dynasty and even carried a 3-1 lead deep into the 2nd half on the back of strong individual efforts from Ben Tubergen and Aidan Jacobs in this matchup. Dynasty would not go down without a fight though and captured 2 consecutive points to force overtime with a trip to the finals on the line. Ryan Ginsberg and Colson Bunch were instrumental in closing out regulation for the top seeded team from Grand Rapids.
In overtime, those same 2 Dynasty members would be flanked by veterans Dylan Fettig and Austin Morley. Kraken would counter with Aaron Krafft, Ben Tubergen, Nolan Stanko and Aidan Jacobs. Overtime was unexpectedly one-sided as Kraken gained early ball advantage and used it, along with a clutch catch from Ben Tubergen to dispatch Dynasty for their first win over their rivals (and first finals appearance) this year.
The finals felt like a throw back to 2024 with Final Justice taking on Kraken. These teams met 3 times in 2024 with a championship on the line. This one felt like a heavyweight fight throughout and Kraken was able to take a 2-1 into halftime. No team over the last 2 seasons has been better at coming from behind than Final Justice and they did it once more by taking 3 consecutive points and closing out another event win, 4-2. Colin O’Brien, the former Kraken member himself, was the hero in the second half notching multiple clutch catches to stymie any comeback chances the Kraken may have had.
New this year, the NDA will be awarding an All-Tournament Team, featuring 8 standout players to highlight their performance at each event. The Executive Board along with feedback from all the attending teams’ captains will craft the list of the 8 players consistent with the caliber of excellence exhibited throughout the tournament. Here is the final All-Tournament Team from the 2025 NDA Regular Season for NDA Detroit 2025.
